Let us be fair to the hawkers we want removed

Police chief Sanjay Pandey. File pic

Police chief Sanjay Pandey has directed the Crime Branch to file extortion cases against police and civic officials taking bribes in order to allow illegal hawking, said a report in this paper. The directive came after the police chief received numerous complaints and suggestions from Mumbaikars on social media. There have been several drives launched by Pandey and this one will surely resonate with Mumbaikars.

Most of us patronise hawkers. While buying, we do not know whether this hawker is legal or illegal. The question now is of organisation. Hawkers with valid licences must be moved into designated hawking zones, these zones that we keep hearing and reading about but mysteriously hardly ever see.

The illegal hawkers need to be weeded out. In fact, illegal hawkers do not just ‘pay' certain bad eggs in authority to allow them to ply their trade at certain spots. Even within the hawkers there is a hierarchy. Some need to pay a hawker leader for some prime spots from which to sell their wares. Illegal hawkers ‘pay' not just authorities but another hawker, too, somebody in charge to peddle their wares. There are legal hawkers who are designated a certain space but then build illegal extensions and additions, encroaching into space, going beyond the legit boundary. Looked at this holistically, there are so many facets to the hawker eco-system, built over time.

The hawker-resident-pedestrian-shop owner battle has been festering for years now. There are different aspects depending on area. In many prime places, hawkers have obfuscated store fronts and narrowed entrances. Outside stations, they have taken over entire footpaths so people and vehicles jostle dangerously for place on narrow roads. We hope this is the beginning of a permanent solution to this face-off. Regulation and systematic space for hawkers is long overdue. This move gives us a glimmer of hope.